King's Speech 2024: Devon campaigners say new laws will help in fight against spiking

Campaigners are welcoming news that spiking someone’s drink will be made a specific criminal offence.

It was one of a raft of measures outlined by the government in the King’s Speech on 17 July.

Dawn Dines is the CEO and Founder of Stamp out Spiking, which is based in Exeter, Devon.

In 1989 she caught someone trying to put a pill into her drink and has spent the last 20 years fighting for more support for victims and more prosecutions of offenders.

Dawn was in Westminster for the speech and said: “This news is going to make such a huge difference to the future safeguarding of men and women across our country on what is really like an invisible crime.

“Keir Starmer's office said that they're going to make this specific offence, so that's what we're hoping for. Myself and my team will be here to make sure that that actually gets through.”

Ms Dines said she hopes the changes in the law will see more offenders being prosecuted. She added: “What it will mean in reality is zero tolerance on spiking.

“We're going to be able to start making sure that we're going to be gaining convictions, because at the moment, we've got less than a 2% conviction rate. And this is something that urgently needs to be changed.

“Our campaigning will always continue because spiking is an invisible crime. It doesn't just happen through drinks either. It happens through vapes, through food, via injection. So we all need to be really vigilant and start working together.”

Ms Dines said the fight against spiking isn’t just confined to changing the law and she is hoping for more action to eradicate the problem.

She said: “We're going to be looking at the government to put some funding in so we can train door supervisors, bar staff, security staff, street pastors, even public transport, because when these victims get spiked, somebody's got to get them somewhere.

“So we all need everybody to be singing off the same hymn sheet to make sure that we are going to safeguard as many people as possible in the future.

“After fighting for 20 years and all the victims, men and women who broke down in my arms and told me the most horrific stories, for them I’m just delighted.”